Police officer seeks owner of old wallet

Mt. Pleasant Police Officer Jeff Browne looks through photographs in a wallet that was found by a Central Michigan University student recently. Browne wants to find the owner, or her family. (Sun photo by SUSAN FIELD)

All Browne knows about her is that she lived at 605 Oak St. in Mt. Pleasant decades ago, and that she had a wallet filled with photographs decades ago, when she was 14 years old.

Browne was recently investigating a car larceny and was going door-to-door in a Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, asking residents if they witnessed anything helpful to the search for a suspect.

A Central Michigan University student didn’t see anything suspicious, but as he was talking to Browne, decided to turn over an old, dirt-crusted wallet he found in the basement of a rental unit.

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Although the student did not remember exactly where he lived in Mt. Pleasant when he found the wallet, that started Browne’s quest for Sharon, who neatly wrote in printing and cursive, details of the photographs she carried in her wallet.

In addition to the photos, the wallet contained a small, postcard-like “Approved Identification Card” that listed her name, address, hair color (brown), weight, height and other personal information.

Using standard police methods like checking the Law Enforcement Information Network didn’t turn up any information, and the phone number Browne found in the wallet was only five digits, leading him to believe it could have been lost as long as 60 years ago.

Browne also based that conclusion on the photographs themselves, all of them black and white with the exception of one color shot of a man named Dean Sampson, taken in Korea in 1951.

“I just want to get it back to the family,” Browne said. “There’s some pretty neat photos that the family might not have access to.

“Maybe she’s alive, maybe she’s not. I’ve got to believe this would be significant to her family.”

While the wallet contained no money, it had a built-in nail file set and a comb.

There is one photograph dated 1947 with the initials “LG” written in ink, with a lipstick kiss mouth print on the back.

One of the photos shows a mother and infant, with “Linda Sampson” and “Sharon Sampson” written on the back, which could be a picture of Sharon and her mother.

Another photograph shows Sharon in front of a cabin-like building with “Wooden Shop Village” written on the back.

“It just would be neat to get it back to her,” Browne said of the wallet.

One of the photos shows a toddler in a basement near an old furnace, with “Rocky Phillips” and other notations that are now illegible.

There are also what appear to be school photographs of Sharon in the wallet.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Brown at the Mt. Pleasant Police Department at 989-779-5100, ext. 6004.